Slow-down circuit for tape type washing machine control

ABSTRACT

A cleaning machine controlled by the passage of a slotted insulating tape between a conductive surface and conductive fingers connected in a plurality of individual control circuits, so that when a slot passes under a finger, the circuit through that finger is closed. One of these circuits is connected to slow-down the speed at which the tape is advanced whenever the passage of one of said slots beneath the finger in said one circuit causes that circuit to close, thus increasing the length of time that any circuit closed by a slot parallel to said one slot remains closed.

United States Patent 1 Pellerin 1541 SLOW-DOWN CIRCUIT FOR TAPE TYPE WASHING MACHINE CONTROL [75] lnventor: Norvin L. Pellerin, New Orleans,

[73] Assignee: Pellerin Mllnor Corporation,

Kenner, New Orleans, La.

22 Filed: Jan.25, 1971 211 App]. No.: 109,356

[52] U.S. Cl. ..68/l2 R, 307/1414 51] Int. Cl. ..D06f 33/02 [58 Field of Search ..68/l2 R; 307/141, 141.4;

[56] 0 References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,055,031 9/1930 Hutchings 68/l2 [1 1 3,710,600 1 Jan. 16,1973

3,003,097 10/1961 Jennings ..307/l4l.4 X

Primary Examiner-Williaml. Price Attorney-Holcombe, Wetherill & Brisebois 5 7] ABSTRACT A cleaning machine controlled by the passage of a slotted insulating tape between a conductive surface and conductive fingers connected in a plurality of individual control circuits, so that when a slot passes under a finger, the circuit through that finger is closed. One of these circuits is connected to slowdown the speed at which the tape is advanced whenever the passage of one of said slots beneath the finger in said one circuit causes that circuit to close, thus increasing the length of time that any circuit closed by a slot parallel to said one slot remains closed.

5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 2 27.514 DRH/N v41. VE 51.0 r

DRAIN V/ILVE SLOT TIME? SLOT FT-:50. DEG/N VALVE SLOT TIMER 5L0 T VEPT/CflL LINES IND/CflTE INTERVHLS OF ONE MINUTE WITH CHflRT RUNNING 47' NORMHL SPEED.

nvyav 70K Nokwlv L. Pam-Rm /l f TURN/7 KS SLOW-DOWN CIRCUIT FOR TAPE TYPE WASHING MACHINE CONTROL SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION For example, once the laundry has been introduced 1 and the machine closed,.it may successively:

1. Introduce water and start rotation of the basket containing the laundry at low speed with'freq'uent reversals of direction.

- 2. Introduce a detergent and possibly otheradditives (bleach, etc.). 3. Change the temperature of the water.

' 4. Remove thewash'water and introduce rinse water.

' 5. Remove the rinsewater'and cause the machine to rotate rapidly at extraction" speed in a single direction for drying purposes. There may be one or several washing and rinsing cycles before extraction, one or more changes in water temperature, and several changesin speed of rotation.

The control system for a representative machine of this type contains high and low voltage circuits. The high voltage circuit powers the motors, one of which drives a timer, which timer may comprise a tape passing between a series of electrically conductive fingers and a drum having'an electrically conductive surface. When an aperture in the tape reaches a point between a particular finger and the drum, the circuit through that finger is closed. This will ordinarily ener-' gize a relay coil which is connected in that circuit, thus closing the contacts of the relay, which completes an auxiliary circuit to open or close a hot water valve, open or close a cold watervalve, alter the speed or direction of operation of the motor driving the basket", etc., as may be required. Circuitry operating in this manner is old and well known, and has been described, inter alia, in US. Pat. No. 2,779,937.

In its simplest and most reliable form, the length of the tape or chart is limited to the circumference of the drum carrying the conductive surface. Since laundrymen use different programs for different types of laundry, it is helpful to have several programson a single tape or chart, so that the tape does not have to be changed every time the type oflaundry changes.

With prevailing arrangements, however, since the timer motor which drives the drum and tape turns at a uniform speed, a large portion of the available tape length is taken up by long slots which merelyserve'to keep one operation (e.g. water drainage) goingfor several minutes at a time. Myinvention relates to means for causing the drum and tape to rotate more slowly when a long operation is to be carried out, so that the slot corresponding to that operation may be shortened, thus permitting a longer program, or more programs, on a given tape.

This is accomplished by providing an extra finger controlling the operation of the motor driving the drum and tape, and which has the effectof slowing it down.

For example, the effect of closing a circuitthrough this finger may be to slow this motor to one-third of its normal speed. In that case, if a particular cycle calls for the machine to be drained for 3 minutes at a particular time, the slot in the tape between the drain finger and the drum is made only long enough to produce one minute of draining at normal tape speed. An aligned slot in the tape is located to permit closing of a circuit through the extra timer-control finger at the same time the drain finger contacts the conductive surface of the drum. With the drum" and tape moving only one-third as fast, the shorter slot beneath the drain finger results in holding the drain valve open for just as long as 5 a slot three times its length would, with the timer'motor moving at three times its speed.

- Consequently, the program for each complete cycle will occupy a shorter section of the tape, and more programs can be carried on a single tape.

In order that, the invention may be clearly understood, a preferred embodiment thereof with now be described, wit reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 'is a fragmentary circuit diagram showing only so much' of the control circuit for a washing machine as is essential to an understanding of the invention;

FIG. 2A shows one portion of a tape suitable for use with conventional machines;

FIG. 2B shows a comparable portion of a tape suitable for use in carrying out my invention; and

FIG. 2C shows a comparable portion of a second tape suitable for use in carrying out my invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1, this shows a very small portion of the control circuit of a representative machine accordingto my invention. The upper portion of this figure shows the high voltage circuits used to drive the motors for the machine with L1 and L2 connected across the terminals of the power source. These motors are conventional in nature so that they require no description beyond pointing out that the motor M drives the'r'otating basket of the washer, while TM is the time or chart motor which rotates the drum having the conductive surface and the tape contacting that drum.

The lower part of FIG. 1 shows the low voltage circuit with the various fingers biassed toward the conductive surface of the drum D, and separated therefrom by a tape T, provided with slots cut at selected points so as to permit the individual fingers to contact the'conductive drum surfaceat the times at which the various operations controlled by those fingers are to be carried out.

L3 indicates the connection of the conductive surface of the drum D to one terminal of a low voltage power source, and L5 the connection of thg various circuits to the other terminal. Certain circuits not controlled by fingers may be connected to a terminal L4 at substantially the same potential as L3. The detailed operation of most of these circuits forms no part of the present invention, but is described in my copending ap-' plication Ser. No. 821 ,861

My invention resides in the fact that in addition to the fingers F controlling the operation of the various valves, thereis a finger Fl controlling a circuit through the actuating coil E1 of a relay having contacts E2 and E3. Contacts E2 are in series with the timer motor, TM,

continue for a considerable length of time, the slot for the finger controlling that function is made shorter, and

paralleled by a slot for the finger Fl controlling the cam motor. When a circuit through the finger F1 is completed, the coil relay E1 is energized, opening the normally closed contacts E2 of that relay and closing the normally open contacts E3 to energize the cam motor CM. The cam motor CM thus turns the cam C, intermittently opening and closing the contacts, and thus driving the timer motor TM one-third of the time. When the end of the slot for the finger F1 is reached, the circuit through the finger F1 is broken, the coil E1 is de-energized, the contacts E2 close, and the contacts E3 open. The timer motor then resumes at normal speed.

It may happen that due to various operating require ments of the machine it is inexpedient to slow down the tape movement during the first and last minutes of the operation of a particular component. For instance, it may be inexpedient to slow down the chart motorduring the first and last minutes of periods when the drain valve is closed. To illustrate this situation, refer to FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C.

FIG. 2A shows a chart with the slot whichwould be used to keep the drain valve closed in present conventional practice, for a 6 minute interval. This slot permits Finger F2, (FIG. 1) to contact the conductive surface of the drum, thus energizing coil D which actuates the drain valve. The vertical lines in FIG. 2A indicate the physical length of the tape segment in any suitable units, and this is true in FIGS. 23 and 2C as well.

FIG. 2B shows the combination of drain and timer motor slots which would cooperate with Fingers F2 and F1 to keep the drain valve closed for the same length of time, with the timer motor slot effective for the full length of the drain valve slot.

FIG. 2C shows the combination of drain valve slot and timer motor slot which would be used when itis inexpedient to slow the chart motor down during the first and last minutes of drain valve closure.

It will be seen that in FIG. 2A, the present conventional arrangement, there is no timer motor control slot,'simply a single drain valve control slot, effective for six minutes.

In FIG. 28, there are two slots, one for the drain valve circuit and one for the timer motor circuit, each one-third the physical length of the slot of FIG. 2. But, because the chart motor slow-down circuit is operative as long as the drain slot is effective, it still takes six minutes for the drain control finger to pass along the drain control slot.

in FIG. 2C the drain valve slot is operative for a first segment A, one-sixth of the length of the slot of FIG. 2A. during which there is no slot in the path traversed by the timer-control finger, so that it takes 1 minute for the drain-control finger to traverse this segment.

In operation, whenever a particular function is to The drain control slot then continues for a second segment one and one-third times the physical length of the first, and this segment is paralleled by a timer-control slot of the same length as this second segment. Consequently, the timer motor operates at one-third normal speed and it takes the drain control finger 3 l 4 times as long to traverse this segment of the slot as it did for the first segment. a

The timer control slot then terminates, but the drain control slot continues for a third segment, equal in length to the first. Since there is no timer control slot paralleling this segment of the drain control slot, the timer will run at normal speed and it will take the drain control finger the same length of time to traverse this segment as the first. Thus in each of FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C it will take the drain control finger the same length of time to traverse its slot, but in the arrangements shown in FIGS. 28 and 2C the drain control slots will be substantially shorter than in the arrangement shown in FIG. 2A.

This permits the use of a shorter section of tape to carry out a complete program of operations, so that a plurality of different programs may be sequentially cut into a single tape having a length no greater than the drum circumference.

While it is most convenient to simply cut apertures into the tape in order to permit the fingers to contact the conductive drum, it will be appreciated that the same purpose may be accomplished by substituting electrically conductive areas for the apertures in the tape.

What is claimed is:

l. A cleaning machine comprising an electrical control system, which system comprises a plurality of circuits each of which, when closed, causes the operation of a particular component of said machine, electrical contact means, a conductive finger in each of said circuits biassed toward said electrical contact means and connected to close its respective circuit when brought into electrical contact with said contact means, an elongated insulating tape and drive means for advancing said tape along a path between said fingers and said electrical contact means, to normally prevent contact therebetween, said fingers being spaced transversely of said tape, and said tape being provided with apertures in the insulation thereof which come into alignment between said contact means and individual fingers as said tape advances to permit electrical contact between said individual fingers and said contact means at selected times dependent upon the linear position of said apertures along said tape and the speed at which said tape travels, the improvement comprising:

means for reducing the speed at which said drive means advances said tape, and a speed control circuit in said system, the closure of which causes operation of said speed reducing means, one of said fingers being connected in said speed control circuit, so that the speed at which said drive means advances said tape is reduced whenever an aperture in said tape comes into alignment between said contact means and the finger in said speed control circuit. 2. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said drive means 'is a motor, and said speed reducing means comprises a cam actuated circuit interrupter in the supply circuit for said motor, said cam being driven in rotation when said speed control circuit is closed, and positioned to interrupt the said supply circuit through said circuit interrupter during a predetermined portion of each revolution of said cam.

3. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 in which one of said circuits is connected to operate a valve which controls the drainage of water from said machine and said tape is apertured to cause closure of said speed-control circuit during at least part of at least one of the periods during which said one circuit keeps said drain valve closed.

4. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 in which certain of said apertures are substantially longer than others and said tape is provided with an aperture which comes into alignment with said speed-control finger during at least part of the time at least one of said longer apertures is in alignment with another finger.

5. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 having a rotating drum, said tape being provided with a plurality of successive groups of apertures, each group being sufficient to control the operation of said machine through a complete washing and rinsing cycle, with each complete cycle differing from the other cycles. 

1. A cleaning machine comprising an electrical control system, which system comprises a plurality of circuits each of which, when closed, causes the operation of a particular component of said machine, electrical contact means, a conductive finger in each of said circuits biassed toward said electrical contact means and connected to close its respective circuit when brought into electrical contact with said contact means, an elongated insulating tape and drive means for advancing said tape along a path between said fingers and said electrical contact means, to normally prevent contact therebetween, said fingers being spaced transversely of said tape, and said tape being provided with apertures in the insulation thereof which come into alignment between said contact means and individual fingers as said tape advances to permit electrical contact between said individual fingers and said contact means at selected times dependent upon the linear position of said apertures along said tape and the speed at which said tape travels, the improvement comprising: means for reducing the speed at which said drive means advances said tape, and a speed control circuit in said system, the closure of which causes operation of said speed reducing means, one of said fingers being connected in said speed control circuit, so that the speed at which said drive means advances said tape is reduced whenever an aperture in said tape comes into alignment between said contact means and the finger in said speed control circuit.
 2. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said drive means is a motor, and said speed reducing means comprises a cam actuated circuit interrupter in the supply circuit for said motor, said cam being driven in rotation when said speed control circuit is closed, and positioned to interrupt the said supply circuit through said circuit interrupter during a predetermined portion of each revolution of said cam.
 3. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 in which one of said circuits is connected to operate a valve which controls the drainage of water from said machine and said tape is apertured to cause closure of said speed-control circuit during at least part of at least one of the periods during which said one circuit keeps said drain valve closed.
 4. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 in which certain of said apertures are substantially longer than others and said tape is provided with an aperture which comes into alignment with said speed-control finger during at least part of the time at least one of said longer apertures is in alignment with another finger.
 5. A cleaning machine as claimed in claim 1 having a rotating drum, said tape being provided with a plurality of successive groups of apertures, each group being sufficient to control the operation of said machine through a complete washing and rinsing cycle, with each complete cycle differing from the other cycles. 